Ruggedly Handsome In Provo's Temple Of Doom With A Pile Of Bones...

I am so clever with titles, aren't I? HAHAHA! Keep reading it'll all make sense, eventually!

This past weekend was another crazy one for us. We have those more often than not lately, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21 - Eric and I were invited to a Halloween Party. It was held by a neighbor and she is so good to invite EVERYONE. I was surprised at how little people there actually was. Anyway, Eric and I had decided we were going to go. And you know Eric, he doesn't like dressing up and does the littlest possible to get away with it.

This year we went as Castle and Beckett. If you know who I'm talking about YOU ARE AWESOME! If you don't, you should repent and start watching the tv show CASTLE immediately!

For those of you who don't know who Castle and Beckett are here's a little rundown:


Richard Castle is a best selling author of murder mysteries. Kate Beckett is an NYPD detective that whose expertise is murders. In one of the earliest episodes there is a murder that follows everything in one of Castle's books. Therefore, they bring Castle in as a suspect. He, of course, is innocent and it then leads into Castle working with Beckett as inspiration for his next book.

Here's our take on Castle and Beckett: (I know I need darker hair and to lose 100 lbs, but hey - we tried)





The party was a scavenger hunt around the area. I fail as a detective. We were the last group back. Partially because the guy we had call for help on one of our clues, heard the letter "F" instead of "S" which would've led us to Smith's. He will never live it down, NEVER!

After the scavenger hunt was over, we headed back to the hostess' house and just visited. A few guys played Beatles Rock Band and then one of the Guitar Heroes games. It was a nice night out away from the kids and I'm so lucky I have a little brother willing to babysit at the drop of a hat!

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22 - We woke up bright and early in the morning. We're talking 4:00 a.m. for Eric as he was afraid of sleeping in and then me waking up at 6:00 a.m. We got all the kids ready and were out the door right around 8:00 a.m.

We got to Eric's parents at 9 a.m. (right when we were supposed to be there) and waited around. Eric's middle brother Greg and his girlfriend, Sava showed up shortly after and had a surprise for each of the kids: (The extra kid in the picture is cousin A.)






After 10 or so minutes, Uncle Ken came back to his parents. He had bought shoes the day before and they forgot to remove the security device, so Ken had to take the shoes back to get the stupid thing off.

We then headed out. We were headed to Provo to watch the BYU game. We left the 2 little ones with Grandma - not sure if she volunteered or was volunteered for it - we also left Tanis with her as he wasn't feeling well. Eric and I rode with Greg and Sava, while the kids opted to go with Grandpa and Uncle Ken.

Grandpa's plan was to buy each of the kids a BYU T-Shirt. He made sure to include the little ones and Tanis! Each of the kids, but Lex got a dark blue shirt. That kid always has to be different. ;) (Some day I'll take a pic of all the kids in their shirts)

After the T-Shirt shopping, we ate lunch in the Cougary/Cougareat(? -someone please correct me) I wanted a burger, so Eric got one as well. Everyone else chose healthier and went with Subway. After sitting down and looking at my burger, I decided it really didn't look very good. Ken walked by and said it looked good. I told him I'd trade him. He replied, "Tempting." He later told me that his sandwich wasn't very good either and that's why he didn't trade.

I sat with the little kids so that Greg and Sava could sit together and Eric could sit with his Dad and Ken. We all sat close to each other, but at three different tables. I had a fun conversation with the kids and loved the way they put things together. Lex wanted to know what bones were made of and all cousin A could say was that it wasn't made of anything, it was just bone!

After lunch we headed to the Football stadium. The freakin place was PACKED. Apparently it was Parent's Weekend or something. Either way it was CRAZY! Our seats were clear up in the nosebleeds (I hate that kind of height) and I was glad (not for the first time of the day) that the little kids were with Grandma.

We had a nice time watching the game, except for at one point. One minute I looked to my side and saw Shaylyn looking over the edge. The next minute I see Ken get up, walk to the egde, look over and say, "Where's Shaylyn?" My heart stopped! for just a minute!

She had sat back down next to Grandpa and I couldn't see her at first, but I did almost immediately after my heart stopped. Ken was just being silly and he felt bad that he scared me so bad.





After the game we went back to Eric's parents and had pizza for dinner. Greg and Sava had to take off to a 6 month sobriety meeting or something for Greg. It's awesome for him that he's done so well for so long. We gladly excused him.

Ken, Eric, Mom and I were going to play a game but the kids kept asking if they could play. So instead, we decided we'd let the kids play a game. Eric and I were extremely tired at this point of night, so when the kids were done with the game we headed home.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23 - The kids had the Primary Program today. Each of our kids had a small part and did great. (Especially since they missed the practice the day before)

After church we headed back to Eric's parents for dinner and a birthday party for Cousin A. and Uncle Greg. A's birthday is on the 19th, Greg's is on the 21st.

After dinner, we went out back where Aunt Wendy had set up an awesome party. The theme was Indiana Jones. She had hats, notebooks and satchels for everyone - even Ailey. She had some awesome games planned out and the kids had a blast! They even commented that A's birthday parties are always fun and they always have a good time. So thanks Aunt Wendy for such a fun party!















For Greg's gift we gave him a gift card, but I wanted to make giving it to him a little more exciting than just a gift card. So I got the idea to pack a bunch of books into a box and wrap that with the gift card at the bottom. But then I decided to go one step further and using a word or two in the title of each book - bring it together somehow....

This is the list of books:

SING YOU HOME
EMILY & EINSTEIN
HOUSE RULES
THE WITCH OF BLACKBIRD POND
HAPPY FACE SAD FACE
THE WIZARD OF OZ
THE LOST SYMBOL
HOME RUN

The notes read thus:

"Happy Birthday, we're glad we're all HOME to celebrate it with you."
"We weren't sure what to give you, but thought about giving you a dog named, EINSTEIN"
"But HOUSE RULES won't allow that."
"Then we thought about buying you your own fishing POND but the WITCH who owns it wouldn't sell it."
"Our EMOTIONS were everywhere, so..."
"We were going to send you to the WIZARD so you could just ask for what you wanted. But the the perfect idea came to us, it's next..."
"Darn it! It must've gotten LOST in the mail or something."
"But then again, perhaps if you skim this book you'll score a HOME RUN."

Everyone got a laugh out of it and I was glad that we were able to pull something off that he wasn't really expecting!

And guess what! I didn't have any cake or ice cream. Go me!!!!

MONDAY, OCTOBER 24 - So we were really back to the hum drum of life, but if you are on Facebook you might've noticed how I kept complaining about the post office and a package being lost?

Turns out the post office did their job and returned it to my Mom cause she wrote the wrong address on it. We got it from her on Saturday night.

The package had cute little Halloween stuff for each of the kids. It also included a cute little craft that the kids couldn't wait to do. So we put these together:


It was an awesome weekend and we're glad we got the chance to spend some time with Eric's brothers family from out of town. BTW - They live in Washington State, so it was a big deal to spend time with them!